Ticketing, a scandal or not ?- There is little we can say as regards our opinion of Ticketmaster, other than we object to there exorbitant booking fees for most games, particularly for the U21 matches (more on that later) and that in general day to day business it is far better to keep something inhouse than to put it out to tender.

That said under the dear old EMC applications for 4,500 odd tickets (Slovakia) were unheard of.
Time will tell with the new mailing Agency in Cirencester, but much has been made of the South Africa ticket scandal where, allegedly the FA sold us tickets for around £12 that clearly said on the front Rand 0.00.

In response to many requests from fans, we took this up with the FA and this time we actually got a reply. "The tickets for the match in South Africa were not given free to The FA. The SAFA used the match tickets as part of the match fee." The match fee, so rather than pay the FA a match fee and then invoice them for the tickets which is the normal course of action when England play abroad, The SAFA chose not to charge the FA for tickets and therefore not pay the FA the entire match fee. "We established with The SAFA what the charge would be for these tickets and they confirmed it would be the equivalent of £12." So the sale of some 2000 tickets @ £12 each + the reduced match fee equalled what would have otherwise been the full match fee. Sounds like a tax dodging exercise to us by the South African FA.

Then we had Macedonia, the late "ban" on fans after many had booked left us all looking for tickets on the black market or through other local Macedonian sources. Then to protect his identity Mr X, a well known Spurs fan, hands us a ticket sold to him outside the ground. Not for the main South Stand where the most expensive seats were 1000 MKD (£12), nor the cheaper East or West stands behind each goal but for the North Stand where our allocation was passed to local sports clubs, Schools and to under privileged children. But wait, this ticket in the open North Stand was not priced at 1000 MKD but, as the picture shows (above Block 1) £20. So another bit of dialogue starts with the FA. Why are we, on the face of it, being ripped off ?.

Again we got a reply from Soho Square "we are not responsible for the price of tickets for an away match, nor do we make any profit on tickets at away matches. In usual circumstances where we accept an allocation of tickets, we are informed of the face value of the tickets for England supporters by the host FA and then convert this into £'s. No mark up whatsoever is made on these tickets."

So it seems no fault can be put at the door of the FA, however the U21's, and those of us who go on a regular basis leaving a day early are, we think being hard done by. Tickets are priced at £10, yes a fair reduction on a competitive match, but vastly smaller when compared with a friendly, yet Ticketmaster add around £3.80 booking fee, which is ridiculous when other than for the Serbia-Montenegro friendly at Hull matches rarely sell out. To get to the point, whilst members of englandfans are charged £10, the majority of the crowd, pay at each game £5, £2 or £0 for their admission, and we only found this out because one of our number who always looks out for ticket stubs, he's so good we should nickname him "Dyson", keeps finding not just at the Hull game (shown) but at West Ham, Sunderland and Newcastle loads of complimentry and tickets purchased at a very low price.

We've put this to the FA but as yet have not had a reply, but we are campaigning for a better deal for members who go that extra mile, when many foreign FA's heavily reduce in price, or even give away an U21 ticket to those purchasing a senior match ticket at the same time. We think members of englandfans wanting an U21 ticket should get it for £5 when purchased at the same time as the senior ticket.

Certainly we get very little for our £45. The "Roar" is more of a kids comic than a Fanzine or newsletter, the sticker album speaks for itself. Give these items to the Junior fans. Treat us like adults and more will behave like adults. WE DESERVE MORE.
 

broken/incorrect hyperlink, please report it here

Disclaimer - This site is not connected with the Football Association, the national team, or englandfans the official England Supporters club. Unless stated, the mentioning of any company, premises, or goodwill advertising of events/campaigns organised by third parties does not imply our recommendation or support.